Typical cellular systems include base transceiver stations that provide wireless communications for cellular phones. These base transceiver stations connect to base station controllers and transmit phone calls and other data using circuit-switched, time division multiplexed communications protocols or virtual circuit, asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) protocols. The connections between base transceiver stations and base station controllers typically support multiple communications sessions by assigning each session to a particular time-slot within frames. Thus, multiple cell phones may simultaneously establish communications sessions via one base transceiver station, and the base transceiver station uses different time-slots for each session. The management and assignment of time-slots often requires complex algorithms making tradeoffs based on a variety of factors. As the number of cell phones increases in a given area, proper management of time-slots becomes critical.
The handoff of a cell phone between base transceiver stations during a communications session exacerbates problems in time-slot management. An established session handing off to a new base transceiver station typically requires a similar time-slot on both the original and the new base transceiver station. Therefore, time division multiplexed connections may result in inefficient use of bandwidth between base transceiver stations and base station controllers and introduce complexity to time-slot management and handoff decisions for cell phones.